Evening belt

Steven Arpad

1935–45 · leather, silk · Costume Institute

While some designers have attained a level of success that makes their names famous, most have worked in anonymity. By consequence, documented examples of the designs of many talented individuals can be hard to come by. Steven Arpad was a designer of shoes and other women's accessories. Working in Paris in the 1930s, he designed shoes anonymously for Balenciaga and Delman, and most probably for other couturiers and high-end manufacturers. Arpad immigrated to the United States and in the 1940s produced lines of leather accessories and jewelry under his own name. Worn by Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers, who was dressed by the greatest couturiers of the 1930s and 1940s including Schiaparelli, Mainbocher, and Charles James, this belt expresses the couture sensibility with its high-quality materials and interesting combination of black lace worked with brown leather.

Artist

Steven Arpad

Date

1935–45

Medium

leather, silk

Culture

probably French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Arturo and Paul Peralta-Ramos, 1955